This paper presents a new joint radar and communication technique based on the classical stepped frequency radar waveform. The randomization in the waveform, which is achieved by using permutations of the sequence of frequency tones, is utilized for data transmission. A new signaling scheme is proposed in which the mapping between incoming data and waveforms is performed based on an efficient combinatorial transform called the Lehmer code. Considering the optimum maximum likelihood (ML) detection, the union bound and the nearest neighbour approximation on the communication block error probability is derived for communication in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The results are further extended to incorporate the Rician fading channel model, of which the Rayleigh fading channel model is presented as a special case. Furthermore, an efficient communication receiver implementation is discussed based on the Hungarian algorithm which achieves optimum performance with much less operational complexity when compared to an exhaustive search. From the radar perspective, two key analytical tools, namely, the ambiguity function (AF) and the Fisher information matrix are derived. Furthermore, accurate approximations to the Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) on the delay and Doppler estimation errors are derived based on which the range and velocity estimation accuracy of the waveform is analysed. Numerical examples are used to highlight the accuracy of the analysis and to illustrate the performance of the proposed waveform.
This paper investigates a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system by considering only the statistical channel state information (CSI) at the base station (BS). We aim to maximize its sum-rate via the joint optimization of beamforming at the BS and phase shifts at the RIS. However, the multi-user MIMO transmissions and the spatial correlations make the optimization cumbersome. For tractability, a deterministic approximation is derived for the sum-rate under a large number of the reflecting elements. By adopting the approximate sum-rate for maximization, the optimal designs of the transmit beamforming and the phase shifts can be decoupled and solved in closed-forms individually. More specifically, the global optimality of the transmit beamforming can be guaranteed by using the water-filling algorithm and a sub-optimal solution of phase shifts can be obtained by using the projected gradient ascent (PGA) algorithm. By comparing to the case of the instantaneous CSI assumed at the BS, the proposed algorithm based on statistical CSI can achieve comparable performance but with much lower complexity and signaling overhead, which is more affordable and appealing for practical applications. Moreover, the impact of spatial correlation is thoroughly examined by using majorization theory.
In this paper, we investigate the performance of an intelligent omni-surface (IOS) assisted downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network with phase quantization errors and channel estimation errors, where the channels related to the IOS are spatially correlated. First, upper bounds on the average achievable rates of the two users are derived. Then, channel hardening is shown to occur in the proposed system, based on which we derive approximations of the average achievable rates of the two users. The analytical results illustrate that the proposed upper bound and approximation on the average achievable rate of the strong user are asymptotically equivalent in the number of elements. Furthermore, it is proved that the average achievable rates with correlated and uncorrelated channels are asymptotically equivalent for a large number of elements. Simulation results corroborate the theoretical analysis and show that the channel hardening effect appears even for a few elements. The impact of channel correlation on the system performance in terms of average achievable rates is negligible for a large number of elements.
Communication security could be enhanced at physical layer but at the cost of complex algorithms and redundant hardware, which would render traditional physical layer security (PLS) techniques unsuitable for use with resource-constrained communication systems. This work investigates a waveform-defined security (WDS) framework, which differs fundamentally from traditional PLS techniques used in today's systems. The framework is not dependent on channel conditions such as signal power advantage and channel state information (CSI). Therefore, the framework is more reliable than channel dependent beamforming and artificial noise (AN) techniques. In addition, the framework is more than just increasing the cost of eavesdropping. By intentionally tuning waveform patterns to weaken signal feature diversity and enhance feature similarity, eavesdroppers will not be able to identify correctly signal formats. The wrong classification of signal formats would result in subsequent detection errors even when an eavesdropper uses brute-force detection techniques. To get a robust WDS framework, three impact factors, namely training data feature, oversampling factor and bandwidth compression factor (BCF) offset, are investigated. An optimal WDS waveform pattern is obtained at the end after a joint study of the three factors. To ensure a valid eavesdropping model, artificial intelligence (AI) dependent signal classifiers are designed followed by optimal performance achievable signal detectors. To show the compatibility in available communication systems, the WDS framework is successfully integrated in IEEE 802.11a with nearly no adding computational complexity. Finally, a low-cost software-defined radio (SDR) experiment is designed to verify the feasibility of the WDS framework in resource-constrained communications.
In this paper, we investigate the impact of side information (SI) on the performance of physical layer security (PLS) under correlated Rayleigh fading channels. By considering non-causally known SI at the transmitter and exploiting the copula technique to describe the fading correlation, we derived closed-from expressions for the average secrecy capacity (ASC) and secrecy outage probability (SOP) under positive/negative dependence conditions. We indicate that considering such knowledge at the transmitter is beneficial for system performance and ensures reliable communication with higher rates, as it improves the SOP and brings higher values of the ASC.
We show that the one-dimensional (1D) two-fluid model (TFM) for stratified flow in channels and pipes (in its incompressible, isothermal form) satisfies an energy conservation equation, which arises naturally from the mass and momentum conservation equations that constitute the model. This result extends upon earlier work on the shallow water equations (SWE), with the important difference that we include non-conservative pressure terms in the analysis, and that we propose a formulation that holds for ducts with an arbitrary cross-sectional shape, with the 2D channel and circular pipe geometries as special cases. The second novel result of this work is the formulation of a finite volume scheme for the TFM that satisfies a discrete form of the continuous energy equation. This discretization is derived in a manner that runs parallel to the continuous analysis. Due to the non-conservative pressure terms it is essential to employ a staggered grid, which requires careful consideration in defining the discrete energy and energy fluxes, and the relations between them and the discrete model. Numerical simulations confirm that the discrete energy is conserved.
The increasing integration of intermittent renewable generation, especially at the distribution level,necessitates advanced planning and optimisation methodologies contingent on the knowledge of thegrid, specifically the admittance matrix capturing the topology and line parameters of an electricnetwork. However, a reliable estimate of the admittance matrix may either be missing or quicklybecome obsolete for temporally varying grids. In this work, we propose a data-driven identificationmethod utilising voltage and current measurements collected from micro-PMUs. More precisely,we first present a maximum likelihood approach and then move towards a Bayesian framework,leveraging the principles of maximum a posteriori estimation. In contrast with most existing con-tributions, our approach not only factors in measurement noise on both voltage and current data,but is also capable of exploiting available a priori information such as sparsity patterns and knownline parameters. Simulations conducted on benchmark cases demonstrate that, compared to otheralgorithms, our method can achieve significantly greater accuracy.
Physical layer key generation (PKG) is a promising means to provide on-the-fly shared secret keys by exploiting the intrinsic randomness of the radio channel. However, the performance of PKG is highly dependent on the propagation environments. Due to its feature of controlling the wireless environment, reconfigurable intelligent surface~(RIS) is appealing to be applied in PKG. In this paper, in contrast to the existing literature, we investigate both the constructive and destructive effects of RIS on the PKG scheme. For the constructive aspect, we have identified static and wave-blockage environments as two RIS-empowered-PKG applications in future wireless systems. In particular, our experimental results in a static environment showed that RIS can enhance the entropy of the secret key, achieving a key generation rate (KGR) of 97.39 bit/s with a bit disagreement rate (BDR) of 0.083. In multi-user systems where some remote users are in worse channel conditions, the proposed RIS-assisted PKG algorithm improves the sum secret key rate by more than 2 dB, compared to the literature. Furthermore, we point out that RIS could be utilized by an attacker to perform new jamming and leakage attacks and give countermeasures, respectively. Finally, we outline future research directions for PKG systems in light of the RIS.
We address the detection of material defects, which are inside a layered material structure using compressive sensing based multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) wireless radar. Here, the strong clutter due to the reflection of the layered structure's surface often makes the detection of the defects challenging. Thus, sophisticated signal separation methods are required for improved defect detection. In many scenarios, the number of defects that we are interested in is limited and the signaling response of the layered structure can be modeled as a low-rank structure. Therefore, we propose joint rank and sparsity minimization for defect detection. In particular, we propose a non-convex approach based on the iteratively reweighted nuclear and $\ell_1-$norm (a double-reweighted approach) to obtain a higher accuracy compared to the conventional nuclear norm and $\ell_1-$norm minimization. To this end, an iterative algorithm is designed to estimate the low-rank and sparse contributions. Further, we propose deep learning to learn the parameters of the algorithm (i.e., algorithm unfolding) to improve the accuracy and the speed of convergence of the algorithm. Our numerical results show that the proposed approach outperforms the conventional approaches in terms of mean square errors of the recovered low-rank and sparse components and the speed of convergence.
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) are planar structures connected to electronic circuitry, which can be employed to steer the electromagnetic signals in a controlled manner. Through this, the signal quality and the effective data rate can be substantially improved. While the benefits of RIS-assisted wireless communications have been investigated for various scenarios, some aspects of the network design, such as coverage, optimal placement of RIS, etc., often require complex optimization and numerical simulations, since the achievable effective rate is difficult to predict. This problem becomes even more difficult in the presence of phase estimation errors or location uncertainty, which can lead to substantial performance degradation if neglected. Considering randomly distributed receivers within a ring-shaped RIS-assisted wireless network, this paper mainly investigates the effective rate by taking into account the above-mentioned impairments. Furthermore, exact closed-form expressions for the effective rate are derived in terms of Meijer's $G$-function, which (i) reveals that the location and phase estimation uncertainty should be well considered in the deployment of RIS in wireless networks; and (ii) facilitates future network design and performance prediction.
A non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) inspired integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system is investigated. A dual-functional base station (BS) serves multiple communication users while sensing multiple targets, by transmitting the non-orthogonal superposition of the communication and sensing signals. A NOMA inspired interference cancellation scheme is proposed, where part of the dedicated sensing signal is treated as the virtual communication signals to be mitigated at each communication user via successive interference cancellation (SIC). Based on this framework, the transmitted communication and sensing signals are jointly optimized to match the desired sensing beampattern, while satisfying the minimum rate requirement and the SIC condition at the communication users. Then, the formulated non-convex optimization problem is solved by invoking the successive convex approximation (SCA) to obtain a near-optimal solution. The numerical results show the proposed NOMA-inspired ISAC system can achieve better performance than the conventional ISAC system and comparable performance to the ideal ISAC system where all sensing interference is assumed to be removed unconditionally.